Sunday, May 13, 2018

Jinan Botanical Park, Hundred Flower Park, DaMing Lake at Night

On Saturday, May 5, David and I had planned to go to the Jinan Botanical Park to see the peonies and what other flowers were there.  When we started talking in the morning, it looked like it was going to be a nice day.  By the time we got out to the bus stop, it was already starting to sprinkle pretty steadily.  We got off at the right bus stop and met Eva at the entrance.
Peonies in the botanical garden.
The rain was continuing and even starting to get worse.  At first we could avoid a lot of the rain because the trees were keeping us covered.  As we searched for the peony section of the gardens, the rain got even more aggressive. Eva had brought an umbrella, but that wasn't going to take care of all three of us.  There are always people that sit at the gates of the parks and tourist areas with things to sell.  So Eva and I took the one umbrella, while David tarried under a sheltered area, and made our way to the entrance where we could buy some umbrellas.

The woman standing there was more than happy to see us.  She shoved aside the stack of kids character umbrellas (although I was eyeing a princess one for David, he he!), and showed me what I could buy and the prices.  I picked out two, and because I was buying two, she gave me 10 Yuan off.  I was happy with that.  We made our way back to where David was, and he was busy having a conversation with some kids and mothers that were also standing there to get out of the rain.
A class of young saxophonists.  Some were still a little squeaky, but that's okay for now.

Close to the end of peony blooming time.  Happy we were able to find some still in good shape though.

We stopped at a small arcade/fast food place for some lunch and to get out of the rain for a little bit.  It started to clear up some while we were there, so we started out again in search of our peony patch.  It didn't take us too long, because we got on a sky walk bridge and found it from there.  There were still some good peonies to see, but if we had waited another week, they would have been all gone.

After we found the peonies, we stopped at a pavilion where a bunch of people were trying to wait out the rain. They had some musical instruments with them and had planned on playing and doing some dances, but the rain stopped them.  They decided to leave about the same time that we did.  I needed to get home and do some things for Sunday, so we left and when home.
Entrance to the botanical garden.

Pretty little pink roses.

The rest of our week was filled up with classes, correcting assignments, David planning for teaching one week of classes to some engineers, and other activities.

On Friday evening, David and I went to see the Hundred Flower Park.  It is the closest park to us, but we don't get there as often as we should.  It was so much cooler in temperature the minute that we walked through the gates.  It was really pleasant.  Different musicians were playing, lots of people walking, flowers blooming, and kids playing.
Trees in Hundred Flower Park.

One of the springs in the park.

We think we could take a different path each time we went to the park and not travel the same one twice.

These peonies were in better shape than the ones at the botanical garden, but still close to the end of flower time.

David with his ice cream.  The ladies running the little booth that had an ice cream display were thrilled to have him come and stop.  There is danger in being able to speak well the little tiny bit of Chinese that we know... they think you know a lot more than you really do...

Pomegranate blossoms.  Very pretty!

Part of a rose garden.

No one hardly ever walks on the grass areas.  They plant their grass like they do their rice, in clumps.

When we left the park to go to the bus stop, there was a precocious seven-year-old waiting there with his grandmother.  He wanted David to "high five" him.  Then he kept talking to us - in Chinese.  The grandmother offered us seats on the bench next to them.  It turns out that they were waiting for the same bus we were.  I think at one point, they were asking us what bus we were taking, and when they came back saying that bus 70 (qishi) was coming in two more stops, and they came back to the bench.  We tried out David's translation app, but the bus came, and we all got on.  It seemed to have made their day meeting us.

One thing that has been taking up a lot of my time has been the discovery of a member of our Church who is living in a smaller city, not far from Jinan.  "J" is from Lithuania and married a Chinese man.  She had been pregnant with her first baby and had preeclampsia and later HELLP Syndrome.  The family had to make the decision to save either her or her baby.  They chose to save her.  The baby was born by C-section, but because the family is a poor farm family, they didn't have the money to keep the baby on the respirator, so the baby died.  This lady was heartbroken and still struggling with the high blood pressure. 

"J" reached out to her friends and family in Lithuania and lamented that she didn't have people in the Church here to support her like there was in her old home.  It just so happened, that a young man who had lived in China, was a missionary there in Lithuania.  When the family told the missionary about J's problems, he told them that there was a Church presence in China with our ex-pat Branch!  Our Branch President was contacted, and he contacted me (as Relief Society President, this comes under my responsibilities to help with).

After contacting J through email and by phone (she reads English better than she can talk and understand), I decided that it was going to be best to go out to visit her in her city.  The problem was how?  J lives about 50 miles away from Jinan.  I don't drive in China (if you lived here, you would totally understand why!), and taking the bus would make this an all day long activity, for which I didn't have time to do.  One of the Priesthood men and a Chinese friend of ours, Simon, could go on Wednesday, but we couldn't get a car to drive us on that day.  We asked Simon to see if it were possible to "rent" a driver and a car for Saturday.  Simon was able to put us in contact with a driver who was willing to do it for 600 RMB.  I felt like that was worth it.  The train doesn't go there and the bus would have been three hours out and three hours back, at a minimum. 

Simon couldn't go with us on Saturday, but fortunately Aaron, our Vietnamese member who speaks Chinese, could go.  We met the driver and his sister at the South Gate of our campus.  I sat in back with the sister of the driver and Aaron.  It wasn't a very roomy back seat.  The driver had lived four years in New Zealand, so he spoke English quite well.  He was able to drive us there in a little less than one and a half hours.  He waited for us for the hour that we spend with J and her husband, and then drove us back to Jinan.  I was so glad that we could go out and help J for that time.  She needed a Priesthood blessing with the oil and also the comfort of a female, mother-type member.

After we had a rest on Saturday afternoon, we waited for a call from Eva.  Her parents had come to visit her and we were going to meet at DaMing Lake and walk around.  When she finally had time to call us, it was already time for supper, so we decided to go to McDonald's and then just meet them at DaMing Lake.

The bus ride there is always a crowded one, it seems.  It is made even worse right now because they are doing construction of a subway system, so several important roads are blocked off, and crowded down to just two lanes each way.  If you can imagine the traffic of several thousand people all trying to get to the lake, so they can walk around and get cooler, than you can imagine how bad the traffic was.
DaMing Lake at night.

We finally made it, and then had to wait for Eva and her parents.  We found a nice low wall near the entrance where we could sit and wait.  While we waited, we were once again, the attention of a lot of people.  Two kids were about nine years old and they seemed to keep coming closer and closer.  Finally, the parents got involved and wanted them to come have their picture taken with us.  We sat the kids between us and got the photo.  There was a guard standing around that seemed curious about us also.  I think if he had known ANY English, he would have come over and talked with us.  One mother sat with her three to four-year old next to us and the little girl was rather shy.  David pulled out his phone and started showing her pictures of our grandchildren, and she was interested.  The guard was interested too, but he couldn't show too much interest it seemed.  Later, David was reading a text message from Eva and the guard came by once more.  I really think he wanted to see some pictures.
A lighted pavilion on a romantic island.

The monument tower to a famous Chinese poet who lived there.

The Jade bridge that goes out to the romantic island.

We had a nice time walking around the lake.  At one pavilion, there were several saxophone players playing.  One of them had some nice track music playing, and he was playing the melody along with it.  It turns out that he was the master and all the other saxophonists were just practicing.  The master played a good dancing song, so David and I started dancing out on the grassy area behind the pavilion.  When that song ended, we had been noticed, so they invited us to come and dance inside the little covered area that the master was playing in.  We did one dance, where we were recorded by more than just Eva, and then sat and listened to him play a few more songs.
This is the master that was so good!
Dancing together, making a spectacle of ourselves.
Everyone insisted that we have a picture with the saxophonist master.
We continued our walk along the edge of the lake until it was time to find a bus to take us home.  We said good-bye to Eva and her parents.  Just as we were about to exit the park, we see Yi Bing (Bob's mom of Bob and Anna fame) and her husband (who we had not met before) walking by.  Yi Bing was so excited to see us!  After we told them that we were trying to catch a bus home, they insisted on walking us across the busy street and down to the bus stop.  Then when the right bus came, Yi Bing jumped in the bus first, paid for our fare, hopped back off the bus, and then waved good-bye as the bus left.  She wants to thank us for helping Bob and Anna with their English so that they could be accepted by Duke University in the US and go to school there.

We made it home safely, and today we went to Church.  We had to leave early because David is teaching the class for the engineers again and their opening ceremony was today.  David has to go introduce himself to this new group of engineers, and then he starts teaching them tomorrow.  I stayed here and helped tutor two fourteen-year-olds, William and Helen.  I think they will be some fun kids to get to know.

No comments: